First-party data and customer trust

Written by : Rashmi Singh

The publishing and advertising world is seeing one of its biggest changes over the past decade or so. Publishers are shifting from third-party data to first-party data in order to gain more customer trust. But this shift is not industry-wide. 

Some publishers have decided to be the early adopters of first-party data. They have invested in first-party data solutions in order to gain more customers’ trust. But a lot of publishers are leaning towards the wait-and-see approach as they still think the changes might only be temporary. 

A question arises – can the first movers differentiate themselves as more privacy-friendly publishers? Let’s find out the answer.

It is not just the customers who are pushing for first-party data because of their increasing concerns over data privacy; lawmakers around the globe are also driving online platforms towards more privacy-friendly policies with different regulatory developments. 

Earlier, it was just a handful of European countries that had stricter regulations around handling user data. But now, the US, APAC, and many African countries are also following the path of European lawmakers. Seeing the policy trends, the early adopters believe that pivoting to first-party data is a matter of 'when' not 'if'.

Google collaborated with Deloitte to conduct a survey about first-party data and customer data. The survey included 88 respondents from the advertising and publishing industry. Down below is a list of key findings of the survey:

• Customers from different geographical regions prioritise privacy differently. Europe and America are more focused on privacy than the APAC market. 

• Advertisers, app developers, and other side players are adopting different approaches to privacy. While some have a bigger appetite to get early adopter benefits, others are less willing to embrace first-party data collection and analysis tools. 

• Until a majority of publishers and advertisers adopt first-party data-based solutions, the lack of action will be a cause for concern. 

• Publishers and advertisers can still take action and adopt readily-available solutions to get early-bird benefits. 

Being one of the biggest players in the advertising world, Google has recommended a number of solutions to publishers based on the key findings of the survey. It recommends taking the following broad range of actions:

• Setting Up for First-party Data Success:  The first step towards building customer trust is laying the foundation with first-party data solutions. The foundation includes not just tools but also educating your users about the data you collect and its implications for them. 

• Connecting to the buy-side: The collection of first-party data is futile until publishers use this data to serve relevant ads. And for that, they have to connect to the buy-side. In the world of third-party data, the most common solutions were third-party id graphs, browser-based solutions, and third-party audiences. But the potential new solutions are clean rooms, ad-exchange based solutions, and first-party identifiers. 

• Winning through first-party data: Publishers need to adopt a few tried-and-tested ways of winning by which publishers can win through first-party data. A few examples are optimizing ad placement, driving user acquisition, unlocking new forms of monetization, building a more direct relationship with the buy side, and fueling more effective audience matching. 

• Making progress on your privacy journey: First-party data-based solutions are newer in the market than most third-party data-based solutions. So, there is much room available for publishers to experiment. The innovative publishers should join and shape the conversation around privacy so that all the parties – customers, publishers, and advertisers – can win. 

If you are a publisher who wants to shift to a first-party data-based publishing solution, you should our Bold CMS. Bold helps you make smart editorial decisions with the help of its relevant first-party data about audience and content. Click here to know more about the Bold CMS.